Campus Life director in Huntington charged with child-porn offenses

A Campus Life director for Youth for Christ faces federal child porn charges after allegedly posing as a teenager on Facebook and persuading young boys to send him photos and videos of themselves. In some of those photos and videos, boys exposed their genitals and masturbated, according to court documents.

Nathan B. Hasty, 34, of Huntington, was charged with violating two federal statutes prohibiting receiving, distributing or possessing any visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court that explained the investigation and charges.

That document says the investigation began early this year, when Facebook told law-enforcement authorities that Hasty was using the social-media site under at least three false identities to engage in sexual conversations with several minors. In two of the accounts, the affidavit says, Hasty posed as a 16-year-old girl and messaged dozens of young boys, “almost all minors between the ages of 12 and 14, according to Facebook…. Posing as a female, he flirts with the boys, attempts to gain their trust and then begins to talk sexually with the boys.”

The affidavit alleges that Hasty asked the young boys questions about the lengths of their genitals, whether they liked to go skinny-dipping and what color underwear they wore. The same document says the youth minister also provided the boys with phone numbers to which they could send texts or pictures. Under a third Facebook identity, the affidavit says, Hasty posed as a 19-year-old boy and pursued similar exchanges with both boys and girls.

The federal affidavit – the legal basis for charges brought in a prosecution – said that when two investigators appeared at Hasty's home Sept. 21, he allowed them to enter his home and answered their questions. According to their report, Hasty admitted using the fake identities to communicate with boys in his youth group.

Some reports on his arrest said he had supervised Campus Life groups at Crestview and Riverview middle schools in Huntington. By Monday evening, the Fort Wayne Area Youth for Christ website's listing for directors at those two schools was conspicuously blank.